Mary Phelps Jacob (Caresse Crosby) Save $201. Reprints of the 1899 Phelps Family in America family history are now available . Loading Notable Family Members Mary Phelps Jacob (Caresse Crosby) Inventor of the Modern Brassiere, Publisher Mary Phelps Jacob (20 April 1891 - 24 January 1970), better known as Caresse Crosby, was the first recepient of a patent for the modern bra. She was also an American patron of the arts, publisher, and peace activist. She and her second husband, Harry Crosby, founded the Black Sun Press which was instrumental in publishing some of the early works of many emerging modernist authors including James Joyce, Kay Boyle, Ernest Hemingway, Hart Crane, D. H. Lawrence, and René Crevel, among others. Image Use and Permission For permission to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise use images of Mary Phelps Jacob (Caresse Crosby), contact the Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Phone: +1 (618) 453-2516. For more images, visit the Caresse Crosby Photograph Collection .

Born in New Rochelle, New York, "Polly" (as she nicknamed herself early in life) was the daughter of a prominent New England family. Her ancestry included Governor Bradford, the Plymouth Colony's first governor, and Robert Fulton, developer of the steamboat. She was also descended from William Phelps , the Puritan colonist. Mary Phelps Jacob circa 1925. Polly's family was not fabulously rich, but her father had been raised, as she put it, "to ride to hounds, sail boats, and lead cotillions," and he lived high. She grew up, she later said, "in a world where only good smells existed." "What I wanted," she said of her privileged childhood, "usually came to pass." A childhood of privilege included private school, dancing school, and horse riding school. She was a rather disinterested student. Author Geoffry Wolff commented that for the most part Polly "lived her life in dreams.". Her education included private schools and She took dancing lessons at Mr.

Dodsworth Dancing Class, attended Miss Chapin's School in New York City, went to school at Rosemary Hall prep school in Wallingford, Connecticut, where she played the part of Rosalind in As You Like It to critical acclaim. She was formally presented to the King of England at a garden party in 1914. In 1915, at age 24, Polly Jacob married her long-time sweetheart, Richard "Dick" Rogers Peabody, son of one of the three great New England families. By the early 20th century a case could be made that the Peabodies had supplanted the Cabots and the Lodges as the most distinguished name in the area. She had for all intents and purposes arrived socially, having married into American aristocracy. But it was not to last. From the Corset to the Brassiere A straight-fronted overbust corset design from 1903 like that probably worn by Mary Jocob in 1910 at age 21.

Blue-blooded Harry Crosby in the 1920s Up to this time, an unhealthy and painful device called a corset narrowed an adult women's waist to 16 or fewer inches. The corset is attributed to Catherine de Médicis, wife of King Henri II of France. She enforced a ban on thick waists at court attendance during the 1550s. For nearly 350 years, women's primary means of support was the corset, with laces and stays made of whalebone or metal. The corset worked by compressing the body at the center and forcing the woman's flesh from the waist to the breasts and hips. The corset's stiffness was reinforced with steel or whalebone struts. It could squeeze a woman's waist to as little as 16 or 17 inches (40 - 43 cm), creating an extremely exaggerated, hourglass shape. For many women, the corset was painful, limited movement, and could even lead to fainting. In 1875, designer Susan Taylor Converse created a garment called the “Union Under-Flannel” from woolen fabric.

The garment is different to previous items as it has no-bones, eyelets, laces or pulleys. The garment was patented by manufacturers George Frost and George Phelps, but never gained much attention. In 1889, French-born corset-maker Herminie Cadolle invented a two-part undergarment. The top half of her 1889 invention was "designed to sustain the bosom and supported by the shoulders." (The bottom half was a corset that covered only the waist and rear.) She called it the 'Well-Being' or 'Bien-être'. Introduced in Paris, the Bien-être resembled a Victorian bikini. But Cadolle's far-sighted design seems to have been kept a close secret among her select customers. Later in 1893, Marie Tucek patented the first brassiere. Her device included separate pockets for the breasts, straps that went over the shoulder which were fastened by hook-and-eye closures. It looked very much like modern bras today, but Marie apparently failed to successfully market the patent. In 1910, Polly Jacob purchased a sheer evening gown for a social event. At that time, the only acceptable undergarment was a corset stiffened with whalebone.

Polly found that the corset's whalebone visibly poked out from her plunging neckline and from under the sheer fabric. Dissatisfied with this arrangement, she worked with her maid to stitch two silk handkerchiefs together with some pink ribbon and cord. Polly's new undergarment, light and risque for its times, complimented the new fashions introduced at the time. Family and friends almost immediately asked Polly to create brassieres for them, too. One day, she received a request for one of her contraptions from a stranger, who offered a dollar for her efforts. She knew then that this could become a viable business. The corset's reign was beginning to topple. While similar inventions for supporting the breasts previously existed, Polly was the first to patent an undergarment named 'Brassiere,' derived from the old French word for 'upper arm'. Illustration from Mary Jacob Phelps' patent application 1,115,674 . Modern version of the overbust straight-fronted corset. Girdle / bra combination foundation garment from the mid-1950s. A modern brassiere typical of modern lingerie descended from Caresse Crosby's initial patent.

Born Mary Phelps Jacob, Caresse Crosby was the "literary grandmother to the Lost Generation" of American expatriate writers in Paris during the 1920s. Harry and Mary Crosby re-christened their company Éditions Narcisse as the Black Sun Press. Their whippet Narcisse Noir is at their feet. On November 3, 1914, the U.S. Patent Office issued a patent for the 'Backless Brassiere'. Her patent was for a device that was lightweight, soft and separated the breasts naturally. Polly christened her business with the name Caresse Crosby. While a definite improvement, her brassiere did not offer breasts a lot of support, and were more flattening than flattering. In fact, the breast-flattening style was popularized by the Flapper look during the Roaring Twenties. With the popularity of actresses like Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, the present breast-enhancing style gained popularity during the thirties and forties.

Running a business either was not enjoyable to Polly or she failed to properly market the product, for she soon sold the brassiere patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for $1,500 (or over $25,600 in today's money). Shortly afterwards, in 1917, the U.S. War Industries Board asked women to stop buying corsets to free up metal for war production. This step liberated some 28,000 tons of metal, enough to build two battleships. Consumer acceptance of the bra was triggered in large part due to World War I. The Great War shook up gender roles, putting many women to work in factories and uniforms for the first time. Women needed practical, comfortable undergarments. Warner went on to earn more than fifteen million dollars from the bra patent over the next thirty years. During the flat-chested Flapper era in the 1920’s, a Russian immigrant named Ida Rosenthal noticed that a bra that fit one woman did not fit another woman of the same bra size. With the help of her husband William, they founded Maidenform.

Ida was responsible for grouping women into bust size categories (cup sizes) and developed bras for every stage of life (puberty to maturity). In the 1930s, Warner produces the first popular all-elastic bra, which shows off a woman's curves. Polly Divorces Richard Peabody and Remarries In 1916 and 1917, Polly and Dick Peabody had two children: a son, William Jacob, and a daughter, Polly ("Poleen"). Dick was a well-educated but undirected man and a reluctant father. She found he had only three real interests, all acquired at Harvard: to play, to drink, and to turn out, at any hour, to chase fire engines. His World War I experiences were traumatic and became an alcoholic. Polly's life was difficult during the war years and when her husband returned home, significantly changed, her life soon changed abruptly too. The catalyst for Polly Peabody's transformation was her introduction and eventual marriage to Harry Grew Crosby, a wealthy scion of a socially prominent Boston family and another veteran and victim of the recent war.

Harry attended private schools and until age 19 and he appeared to be well on the path to a comfortable life as a member of the upper middle class. His experiences in World War I changed everything. In the pattern of other sons of the elite from New England, he volunteered for the American Field Service Ambulance Corps. He served in the Second Battle of Verdun. After the Battle of Orme, his section (the 29th, attached to the 120th French Division) was cited for bravery, and in 1919 Crosby was awarded the Croix de Guerre. While completing school after WWI, Harry met Polly. She was 28, six years older than Harry, with two small children. By some accounts, Harry fell in love with Mrs. Peabody in about two hours. He confessed his love for her in the Tunnel of Love at the amusement park. Two weeks later they made love. Their scandalous courtship was the gossip of blue-blood Boston. Polly finally divorced Richard Peabody who was in and out of sanitariums fighting his alcohol abuse, and on September 9, 1922 Harry and Polly were married.

Two days later they moved to France to join other American expatriates, probably much to the relief of their respective families. At first they lived in Paris, then they bought a restored mill in the suburb of Ermenonville, which they called Le Moulin du Soleil ("The Mill of the Sun"). They partied with artists and socialites, met with writers, studied literature, and began to both write and publish their own work. Harry at first worked for his famous uncle, American capitalist J.P. Morgan, who was also Harry's godfather, in a job arranged for him in a Paris bank. But he soon tired of the working life and by the end of 1923 Harry quit the banking job. Harry At the end of 1924, Harry persuaded Polly to formally change her first name to Caresse. Polly and Harry purchased a race horse and then two more. They traveled to North Africa where it is reported they first smoked opium, a habit to which they would return again and again. From 1922 to 1925, the Crosbys led the life of the rich expatriates.

They lived a glamorous and luxurious lifestyle that included an "open marriage," a mutual suicide pact, and cremation instructions they carried with them. Their lifestyle was financed by selling the bonds and stocks whose dividends were previously the basis of Harry's income. Harry at one point sent a telegram to Boston: "PLEASE SELL 10,000 WORTH OF STOCK. WE HAVE DECIDED TO LEAD A MAD AND EXTRAVAGANT LIFE." Founded the Black Sun Press After publishing two volumes that they were unhappy with, the Crosbys found a master printer named Roger Lescaret whose previous work had been largely funeral notices. He printed Harry’s poems in a fine edition. Harry and Caresse were very happy with the book, Red Skeletons. It contained illustrations by their friend Alastair (Hans Henning von Voight). The decided to found a press, first called Éditions Narcisse— after their black whippet, Narcisse Noir. It was created to publish its founders’ attempts at verse in beautifully bound, hand-set books.

By the time the name of the press was changed in mid-1928 to the Black Sun Press, the careers of both the Caresse and Harry Crosby were in high gear. The Black Sun Press is famous for having published lavishly bound, typographically impeccable versions of unusual books, including The Fall of the House of Usher, their Hindu Love Book, and letters by Henry James to Walter Berry, Harry’s cousin. As their literary tastes matured, they began to publish the works of their Parisian literary friends. This included D. H. Lawrence’s The Sun and Escaped Cock (sometimes reprinted under the title The Man Who Died); James Joyce’s Tales Told of Shem and Shaun (work — later incorporated into Finnegans Wake; and short stories by Kay Boyle. In 1929, their best year, they published fourteen works by James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound, among others. Caresse published her own book of poetry, Crosses of Gold. The Crosbys had what people later in the twenty-first century would call an "open marriage" and both had numerous extramarital affairs. Harry was a womanizer, gambler, alcoholic, and opium smoker.

They apparently remained devoted to each other nonetheless. While Caresse maintained the joie de vivre of a moneyed and carefree 1920s heroine, Harry grew darker in his moods and became increasingly obsessed with death. In 1928, Harry Crosby met Josephine Noyes Rotch, whom he would call the "Youngest Princess of the Sun" and the "Fire Princess." She was descended from a family that first settled in Provincetown on Cape Cod in 1690. Josephine would inspire Crosby's next collection of poems called Transit of Venus. Miss Rotch was twenty, ten years younger than Harry. The two fell in love. In a letter to his mother, dated July 24, 1928, Crosby wrote: I am having an affair with a girl I met (not introduced) at the Lido. She is twenty and has charm and is called Josephine. I like girls when they are very young before they have any minds. Josephine and Harry had an ongoing affair until she married, when it ceased. Then Josephine Bigelow's new husband got busy with school, and Josephine contacted Harry again.

Their affair rekindled, they traveled to Detroit and checked into an expensive, $12 a day hotel as husband and wife. For four days they took meals in their room, smoked opium, battled, and made love. On December 7, 1929, the lovers returned to New York where they agreed that Josephine should return to Boston to her husband. But on December 9 she had delivered a 36-line poem to Crosby who was staying with Caresse at the Savoy-Plaza Hotel. The last line of the poem is: Death is our marriage. On December 9, Harry Crosby made the following entry into his notebook: One is not in love unless one desires to die with one's beloved. There is only one happiness it is to love and to be loved. These are Crosby's very last entries into his journal. On December 10, 1929, in an apparent suicide pact, Harry was found in bed with a .25 caliber bullet hole in his right temple next to Josephine, who had a matching hole in her left temple. Harry was still clutching the pistol in one hand, Josephine in the other.

Harry apparently shot Josephine and then, according to the coroner, several hours later, he shot himself. After Harry Crosby's suicide, Caresse continued her writing and publishing work at Black Sun. She also established Crosby Continental Editions, a book company that published paperback books by Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker, among others. In 1937, at age 47, she married Selbert Young, a football player nearly twenty years her junior. She bought and renovated Hampton Manor, a ruined but splendid home in Bowling Green, Virginia. She opened an art gallery in Washington D.C. and started Portfolio, a magazine about art and literature. She also was politically active and founded the organization Women Against War. She later bought a castle north of Rome that gave her the title of Principessa, and later mountain-top retreats in Cyprus and Delphi. Thus she had homes in Bowling Green, Virginia, in Washington, D.C., a sprawling apartment at 137 East Fifty-Fourth Street in New York City, as well as her residences in Europe. Caresse Crosby with her dog Narcisse in Paris in about 1924.

Harry and Caresse in about 1927. He killed himself two years later in a scandalous murder-suicide pact with a lover. A broadside written by Harry Crosby, in advance of his death, illustrating his preoccupation with his own, glorious, death. Caresse Crosby and Peggy Guggenheim in a gondola in Venice. Photographed by Roloff Beny in 1953. Caresse Crosby in the 1960s with poet Ezra Pound at her estate in Italy. Adriana Lima models Victoria's Secret annual Fantasy Bra in 2011, featuring 60K of white diamonds and 82K of Topaz and Sapphires. Henry Miller and Opus Pistorum In Paris during 1933, Caresse had met Henry Miller. When he returned to the U.S. in 1940, he confessed to Caresse his lack of success in getting his work published. Miller's autobiographical book Tropic of Cancer was banned in the U.S. as pornographic, and he could get no other work published.

She invited him to take a room in her New York apartment where she infrequently lived, which he accepted, though she did not provide him with money. Desperate for cash, Miller fell to churning out pornography on commission for an Oklahoma oil baron, but after two 100-page stories that brought him $200, he could do no more. Now he wanted to tour the United States by car and write about it. He got a $750 advance, and persuaded the oil man's agent to advance him another $200. He was preparing to leave on the trip but still have not provided the work promised. He thought then of Caresse Crosby. She was already pitching in ideas and pieces of writing to Anaïs Nin's New York City smut club for fun, not money. Caresse was facile and clever, wrote easily and quickly, with little effort. Caresse accepted Henry's proposal. She wrote the title given her by Henry Miller "Opus Pistorum" at the top, and started right in. Henry left for his car tour of America. Caresse churned out 200 pages and the collector's agent asked for more.

Caresse's smut was just what the oil man wanted-no literary aspirations-just plain sex. In Caresse the agent had found the basic pornographic Henry Miller. Caresse churned out another 200 pages, spending her time writing while her husband, Bert Young, fell into a drunken stupor every night. In her diary, Anaïs Nin observed that everyone who wrote pornography with her wrote out of a self that was opposite to her or his identity, but identical with his desire. Polly or Caresse experienced years of social constraints imposed by her upper-class association in New York. She had a doomed and troublesome romanticism with Harry Crosby. She participated in a decade or more of intellectual lovers in Paris during the 1920s. Perhaps it was a release for Caresse just to take love as casual lust and let it go at that. Her Later Years In 1950 Caresse divorced Bert Young and moved to Rocca Sinibalda, Italy where she planned to create an artists colony. She published an autobiography in 1953 called The Passionate Years.

In the last years of her life, Crosby tried to build a world citizen center that would bring together political leaders and the artistic community in Greece and then in Cyprus. She was frustrated by political obstacles. She hired her friend Buckminster Fuller to design the structure, but she died in Rome of heart failure in 1970 at age 79, before its completion. Like Harry, Caresse Crosby is remembered primarily for her activities as a publisher, but she is also remembered as the inventor of the first modern bra. Caresse died in relative obscurity, but she lived long enough to see the bra go through a number of transformations and become immensely popular all over the world. The Modern Bra All kinds of bras have been created for every conceivable purpose, to do all the things that corsets have done in previous generations: minimize, uplift, show cleavage, maximize, or plain show off. Training bras for newly developing young girls seem like an oxymoron, and in reality aren't really meant for support as much as for camouflage. Jogging or sports bras are a more recent innovation for the woman who wants to work out, and some are meant to be worn as outerwear. Statistics show the average American woman today owns six bras.

Out of those six, one of is a strapless bra and one is a color other than white. Despite all of the many advances and improvements in br assieres, perhaps a Surgeon General's warning is still required. In 1994, Berbel Zumner, age 23, was walking through a park in Vienna. Berbel had large breasts and wore a brassiere with underwire support to support her ample frame. She was killed when lightening struck her brassiere. In 2004, Fine Line Features optioned Andrea Berloff's first screenplay "Harry & Caresse." Lasse Hallström was initially attached to direct and Leslie Holleran was attached as a producer. No completion date has been set. References and Sources American Heritage of Invention & Technology, Spring 1997, Volume 12/Number 4 Daily Record (Scotland) 21 October 1994 "Caresse Crosby, Infield." Cosmic Baseball Association , 1998 (December 2003) Brassieres: An Engineering Miracle From Science and Mechanics, February, 1964. By Edward Nanas "The Brassiere." Useless Information .

(December 2003) Bra sizes Sizes.com July 11, 2001 (June 2004) Edward Germain, Editor, Harry Crosby, Shadows of the Sun: The Diaries of Harry Crosby. Santa Barbara, California: Black Sparrow Press. 1977. Conover, Anne. Caresse Crosby: From Black Sun to Roccasinibalda. Santa Barbara, California: Capra Press, 1989. Wolff, Geoffrey Black Sun. Random House: New York. 1976. Cox, Shelley "Introduction: The Black Sun Press," ICarbS 3:2 (1977), 3-4. Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek. Patently Female (John Wiley, 2002) p. 134-139. Caresse Crosby The Passionate Years (Ecco Press).

Convert A Regular Bra Into A Backless One With Just A Few Simple Cuts Convert A Regular Bra Into A Backless One With Just A Few Simple Cuts Next The brassiere, more commonly known as the bra, has existed in one form or another for a very, very long time. Ancient Greek women wore an "apodesmos/mastodeton," a band of wool or linen that was wrapped across the chest and then tied or pinned at the back. The term "brassiere" was first used in English in 1893 to describe what essentially resembled a camisole, stiffened for support using bones. In 1914, Mary Phelps Jacob was given the first U.S. patent for a bra. Today the bra has become an essential item for many women, while many others reject it based on their comfort and/or sociopolitical viewpoint. One thing that nearly all women do agree upon is that if you are wearing a bra, having the straps showing doesn't look great, especially when going with a backless dress. That's why YouTuber Ray Lee has come up with this simple DIY method of eliminating the back portion of a standard bra, without sacrificing support.

0 Shares 1000+ images about MARY PHELPS JACOB on Pinterest | 1920s men, Henry miller and 1920s Henry Miller in Paris - compliments from the gangster author, photo by Brassaï 1930 See More Mary Phelps Jacob | BEST TEENAGERS EVER BEST TEENAGERS EVER From Joan of Arc to Mark Zuckerberg, a blog about the world's most amazing young adults Search YOUNG PEOPLE ARE RESPONSIBLE for awesome inventions like Braille and novelty items like the oversized hand that flashes the number-one finger at sporting events. They tend to specialize — no surprise— in creating fun stuff: dances, doughnuts, games, and superheroes. Steve Chmelar and his less-than-essential invention: the oversized number-one finger. This is an exclusive list, sort of. I could have included the Chinese empress who supposedly discovered the garment-making skill of silkworms, except everyone agrees that story is hogwash. I could’ve included the teenager who created a shorthand method that 18 million people used at one time, but I suspect today’s teens would say, “That’s swag!

What’s shorthand?” I wanted to go with the teenager who introduced the Caesar salad, but a lot more people eat donuts and cheeseburgers, so I listed those inventors instead. If you’re a skeptic you might be thinking, “Whoa, now! How do you know who really invented the donut?” I don’t. Some folks are clearly connected to their creation(s), and others get the credit through murkier means. I’ll point out when the inventor/invention relationship is less than certain. The following are listed in alphabetical order. BRA (MODERN). Mary Phelps Jacob, eighteen-year-old New York socialite, fashioned a bra from two silk handkerchiefs and some ribbon and cord in 1910. She received a patent for her invention four years later. While bras had been worn before, they had never caught on like they would in the 20th century. BRAILLE. Louis Braille, fifteen, invented his eponymous reading-and-writing system for the blind in 1824. He published a book describing how to use it five years later, but Braille never caught on until shortly after his death in 1852.

BRAZIL’S SOCCER UNIFORM. Aldyr Garcia Schlee, eighteen, won a 1953 contest with his design of what may be the world’s most recognized sports uniform. CALCULATOR. Blaise Pascal, eighteen, created a numerical wheel counter (right) to assist his tax-collector father in 1642. The Calculator Site ( thecalculatorsite.com ) calls Pascal’s creation the world’s first mechanical calculator, but some dispute this. CAMEL SPIN. Dick Button, eighteen, has been credited with introducing the camel spin, the double axel and the triple loop as a gold-medal-winning figure skater in 1948. CHEESEBURGER. Lionel Sternberger, sixteen, dropped a piece of cheese on a sizzling burger at his dad’s Pasadena, California, sandwich shop in 1923, thus creating America’s favorite addition to the standard hamburger. Maybe. Others have claimed credit for the burger-meets-cheese innovation. Louis Ballast of Denver’s Humpty Dumpty Drive-in received a patent in 1934. CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.

Joseph Smith, fourteen, reportedly saw two visions in a grove (left) near his home in Palmyra, New York, in 1820. This was the seminal moment in the forming of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. CIGARETTE-MAKING MACHINE. James Bonsack, eighteen, invented a machine in 1879 that greatly increased the number of cigarettes made and consumed in the U.S. The Bonsack machine in 1884 rolled as many cigarettes in one day as 48 laborers working by hand. This resulted in a lot more health-related problems from smoking. Not good. COLT REVOLVER. Samuel Colt, sixteen, designed his famous firearm in 1830 and patented it five years later. Unlike many inventors, who reaped little or no profit from their creations, Colt died a rich man. COMIC-CON. Richard Alf, eighteen, co-founded the first three-day comic-con in San Diego in 1970. He became the event’s chairman in 1971. CURVE BALL.

Candy Cummings, eighteen, threw what is believed to be the first curve ball in a baseball game in 1867. DONUT. Hanson Gregory, fifteen, cut a hole in a fried cake to make what some have called the first-ever donut in 1847. Someone else may have made donuts earlier but there seems to be no strong competing claim. FACEBOOK. Mark Zuckerberg, nineteen, got tired of waiting for Harvard to create a universal facebook in 2004. “I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week,” he said, and he was right. FLAG DAY. Bernard Cigrand, nineteen, introduced the first Flag Day as a Wisconsin schoolteacher in 1858. Congress declared it official in 2004 that our annual flag-appreciation day began with Cigrand and his students at Stony Hill Grade School in Waubeka, Wisconsin. FOSBURY FLOP. Dick Fosbury, sixteen, introduced his ungainly but effective high-jumping technique at a 1963 track meet in Grants Pass, Oregon. FRISBEE.

Fred Morrison, seventeen, started selling flying discs made from pie tins in 1937. Twenty years later, he sold his invention to Wham-O. HELICOPTER, COAXIAL. Stanley Hiller. Jr., nineteen, debuted his self-made XH-44 helicopter in July of 1944. Hiller’s machine flew with two large blades on top of each other, spinning in opposite directions. HUMAN CANNONBALL. Rossa Matilda Richter, fourteen, performed the first-ever human cannonball in London in 1877. Her zazzy stage name: Zazel. IMAGE DISSECTOR. Philo Farnsworth, fourteen, conceived of this key component in the invention of television as an Idaho farmboy in 1921. JENGA. Leslie Scott, sixteen, was a Brit living in Ghana when she created the stacking game in 1972. Jenga means “to build” in Swahili. JUMP SHOT. Kenny Sailors, fourteen, began leaping high and releasing the ball over his head in basketball battles with his much-taller brother in 1934.

While that was not documented at the time, Sailors is considered one of the originators of the jump shot. LOUISVILLE SLUGGER. Bud Hillerich, seventeen, carved the first of the custom bats in 1884. About 60 percent of modern Major Leaguers swing Louisville Sluggers. MODERN MANGA. Osamu Tezuka, eighteen, “more of less invented Japanese comics (TIME magazine, 2003)” with New Treasure Island in 1947. Tezuka introduced a cinematic story telling style and the big-eyes drawing style that others came to emulate. MUPPETS. Jim Henson, eighteen, and Jane Nebel introduced Kermit and friends on a show called “Sam and Friends” in 1955. NUMBER-ONE FINGER. Steve Chmelar, sixteen, crafted an oversized “number-one” finger from papier mâché and spray paint in 1971. Seven years later, a teacher named Geral Fauss created the foam version of the hand-and-finger item. PEDAL BICYCLE. Pierre Lallement, eighteen, introduced a pedal to the bicycle in 1862.

The website of the U.S. bicycling Hall of Fame calls the French mechanic “the father of the modern bicycle.” PERCUSSIVE BREAKS IN HIP-HOP MUSIC. Clive Campbell, aka DJ Kool Herc, eighteen, pioneered a new style of urban music by using two turntables to play two copies of the same record during a back-to-school jam in the Bronx in 1973. Kool Herc’s method allowed him to extend the percussive breaks on songs. “Once they heard that, there was no turning back,” he told Michael A. Gonzalez of New York Magazine. “They always wanted to hear breaks after breaks after breaks.” PHI BETA KAPPA. John Heath, eighteen, and three others started the academic honor society while students at the College of William & Mary in 1776. PING-PONG DIPLOMACY. S. table tennis player Glenn Cowan, nineteen, made friends with a Chinese player, Zhuang Zedong, during a 1971 tournament in Japan. The unlikely pals started a thaw in Cold War tensions that spread to the governments of China and the U.S. PURPLE DYE.

William Henry Perkin, eighteen, tried to make a malaria treatment and ended up with a purple sludge in 1856. He turned that sludge into a dye that made coloring clothes a lot more effective and affordable. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. Michael (seventeen) and Charles (nineteen) De Young founded a San Francisco newspaper in 1865. Originally called the Daily Dramatic Chronicle, it was filled with ads, drama critiques, and a little bit of news before growing into one of the largest-circulation newspapers in the U.S. SCIENCE FICTION. Mary Shelley, eighteen, starting writing Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus in 1816. While not everyone agrees, many consider this the first work of science fiction. ST. LOUIS. Rene Auguste Chouteau, fourteen, co-founded the site that would become the city of St. Louis in 1764. The other founder, French businessman Pierre Laclède, put Chouteau in charge of a crew that cleared land and built cabins on the site. SUPERMAN. Jerry Siegel, nineteen, dreamed up the superhero one hot Cleveland evening in 1934.

The next day Shuster, also nineteen, designed Superman’s outfit. TEXAS FLAG. Joanna Troutman, seventeen, created a one-star flag with the words “LIBERTY OR DEATH” that flew in the company of the Georgia Battalion in 1835. A force 150 volunteers, the Georgia Battalion fought for Texas in its war for independence with Mexico. TRAMPOLINE. George Nissen, seventeen, built the first “rebound-tumbling” device, or trampoline, in 1931. He tinkered with his creation for years, making it springier and safer. TWIST (DANCE). Chubby Checker, eighteen, made “The Twist” a huge hit in 1960 and 1962 (when it was re-released). While Hank Ballard wrote the song, Checker is credited with popularizing the dance moves associated with “The Twist.” INDIGO. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, sixteen, began experiments with blue-dye-producing indigo plants in 1740. Indigo had never taken to U.S. soil before Pinckney’s efforts resulted in successful crops that greatly boosted South Carolina’s economy. URBAN DICTIONARY.

Aaron Peckham, eighteen, launched the Urban Dictionary in 1999. Ten years later, The New York Times called the Urban Dictionary a “stunningly useful” document. WATER SKIING. Ralph Samuelson, eighteen, tested the first successful water skis on Minnesota’s Lake Pepin in 1922. Reply Mary had a little plan, bra, bra, bra. DRESSING FOR A NIGHT out on this date in 1910, eighteen-year-old Mary Phelps Jacob glanced in the mirror and grimaced. Although the sheer evening gown she had purchased for the evening looked stunning, the bulky corset beneath it protruded in all the wrong places and ruined the whole effect. What could she do? Improvise. Ditching the corset, a constrictive undergarment that extended from below the breasts to the hips, Jacob took two silk handkerchiefs, some ribbon and cord, and fashioned what some regard as the first modern brassiere. The innovation made the gown look great, and people noticed. Jacob was soon sewing bras for friends and family members.

She received a patent for her invention on November 3, 1914, and briefly made a business of bra construction and sales, using the name Caresse Crosby. When she grew weary of the enterprise, she sold the brassiere patent to a corset company in Connecticut for $1,500. The new bra-makers made $15 million from the patent over the next 30 years. 0.000000 0.000000 The History of the Brassiere - Mary Phelps Jacob The History of the Brassiere Mary Phelps Jacob and the Brassiere History of the Brassiere. Mary Bellis Updated February 01, 2016. The first modern brassiere to receive a patent was the one invented in 1913 by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob. Mary Phelps Jacob had just purchased a sheer evening gown for one of her social events. At that time, the only acceptable undergarment was a corset stiffened with whaleback bones. Mary found that the whalebones poked out visible around the plunging neckline and under the sheer fabric.

Two silk handkerchiefs and some pink ribbon later, Mary had designed an alternative to the corset. The corset's reign was starting to topple. An unhealthy and painful device designed to narrow an adult women's waist to 13, 12, 11 and even 10 or less inches, the invention of the corset is attributed to Catherine de Médicis, wife of King Henri II of France. continue reading below our video Should I Roll Over my 401K to an IRA? She enforced a ban on thick waists at court attendance's (1550's) and started over 350 years of whalebones, steel rods and midriff torture. Mary Phelps Jacob's new undergarment complimented the new fashions introduced at the time and demands from friends and family were high for the new brassiere. On November 3, 1914, a U.S. patent for the "Backless Brassiere" was issued. Caresse Crosby Brassieres Caresse Crosby was the business name Mary Phelps Jacob used for her brassiere production.

However, running a business was not enjoyable to Jacob and she soon sold the brassiere patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for $1,500. Warner (the bra-makers, not the movie-makers) made over fifteen million dollars from the bra patent over the next thirty years. Mary Phelps Jacob was the first to patent an undergarment named 'Brassiere' derived from the old French word for 'upper arm'. Her patent was for a device that was lightweight, soft and separated the breasts naturally. Other points in the history of the brassiere worth mentioning: In 1875, manufacturers George Frost and George Phelps patented the 'Union Under-Flannel', a no bones, no eyelets, and no laces or pulleys under-outfit. In 1893, a woman named Marie Tucek patented the 'breast supporter’; the device included separate pockets for the breasts and straps that went over the shoulder, fastened by hook-and-eye closures. In 1889, corset-maker Herminie Cadolle invented the 'Well-Being' or 'Bien-être', a bra-like device sold as a health aid.

The corset's support for the breasts squeezed up from below. Cadolle changed breast support to the shoulders down. World War I dealt the corset a fatal blow when the U.S. War Industries Board called on women to stop buying corsets in 1917. It freed up some 28,000 tons of metal! In 1928, a Russian immigrant named Ida Rosenthal founded Maidenform. Ida was responsible for grouping women into bust-size categories (cup sizes). Who Invented Bras? - The Breast Life Who Invented Bras? March 8, 2016, 8:31 am | By Elisabeth Dale It’s Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day and the perfect time to ask: who invented bras? Love them or hate them, most women (and even some men) won’t leave home without one. There’s no medical reason to wear them despite claims to the contrary. But bras do alleviate the aches and pains of carrying extra boob weight or boost self-esteem, along with breasts. We strap them on for all sorts of reasons, be it fashion or convenience. You can buy styles for exercising, breastfeeding, or boudoir play.

It’s a versatile piece that serves as the foundation for everything else I wear. This undergarment has continued to change and evolve, like women’s place in society. They’re made of stretchy materials, plastics, and flexible wires and sizes have expanded. Moving from hand-sewn to factory-made also altered the look of the female form. So who came up with this bright idea? It appears more than one creative woman was involved. Practical and stylish bust support isn’t as revolutionary as some think. Mary Phelps Jacob Bra Patent Image via Google Patents Many give all the credit to early 1900s socialite, Mary Phelps Jacob (aka Caresse Crosby). She filed the first U.S. Patent for a bra-like design, after asking her maid to sew two handkerchiefs together so she could wear something less constricting under her evening gown. But some bust restraint existed long before Jacob’s struggle to find the right lingerie to wear under a dress. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.) Ancient mosaics show female athletes wearing something that looks like a bikini to compete in sporting events. Who could blame them for wanting to banish the bounce?

4th Century Mosaic near Villa Romana del Casale Image by Clemensfranz via Wikipedia Commons More recently, archeologists unearthed a 600-year-old linen brassiere worn during the Middle Ages. This is one of four bra styles found in an Austrian castle: History Extra Image via Beatrix Nutz More than a few breast supporting creations were patented during the late 1800s, long before Mary Phelps Jacob had her “ah-ha” bra moment. An entire corset wearing generation was looking for more than freedom of movement. Women were and continued to be the architects of many breast lifting inventions. Today’s sports bra wouldn’t exist if women hadn’t come up with the first prototype by sewing together two jock straps. Over half of all the bra patents are held by women, according to the authors of Uplift: The Bra in America . Google the names of Marie Tucek, Herminie Cadolle, Ida Rosenthal, and Hinda Miller to learn how the bra has evolved over time. Women today work in all aspects of the industry; from designing to starting up new lingerie brands.

Marie Tucek 1893 Breast Supporter via Google Patent Search From Bombs to Bras: World War I Conservation Measures Transform the Lives of Women | ConnecticutHistory.org From Bombs to Bras: World War I Conservation Measures Transform the Lives of Women Advertising card of the Dr. Warner’s Caroline Corset – Courtesy of Museum of Connecticut History By Christina Nhean Did you ever wonder how women in the United States began using a bra as part of their daily wardrobe? Would it be surprising to find out that the use of bras in the United States originated from helping soldiers fight in the Great War in 1917? Contributions from designers and inventors, such as Mary Phelps Jacob, allowed women to embrace newfound freedom with a bra. The evolution of the bra all began when Mary Jacob refused to wear a typical 20th-century corset. Warner Company’s “Redfern” corset, worn by Eva Follett at her marriage to I.

DeVer Warner (one of the founders of the company) in 1897 – Courtesy of Fairfield Museum and History Center New York socialite Mary “Polly” Phelps Jacob was getting ready for a ball when the support rod from her corset poked through the fabric, causing her significant discomfort. Tired of the pain caused by the corset, Jacob requested from her maid, two handkerchiefs and a ribbon. Jacob proceeded to sew the handkerchiefs with the ribbon, which created a comfortable alternative to the corset, providing a flattering shape to her bust. When she attended the ball, friends and family asked for the secret behind her new look, to which she explained her creation of the brassiere (“upper arm” in French). Bridgeport’s Warner Brothers Corset Company As word got out to the community, Jacob realized the potential of turning the brassieres into a business. On November 3, 1914, Jacob received a patent for the “backless brassiere” under the name “Caresse Crosby,” the first person to patent the backless brassiere in the United States.

Unfortunately, Jacob was unsuccessful in marketing the brassiere, and in 1915 sold her patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport , Connecticut, for $1,500 (approximately $35,000 in today’s dollars). By the late 1800s, Connecticut was among the most proficient producers of manufactured goods in the nation, and Bridgeport, a leading manufacturer of corsets—providing nearly three-fourths of the total corsets to the United States. One of the most important companies in Bridgeport was the Warner Brothers Corset Company, which successfully produced a variety of health corsets, including the “Coraline” corset. By 1912, the Warner Brothers Company was the leading corset manufacturing company in the world. Cotton and Lace Bra, ca. 1915-1925 – Courtesy of Connecticut Historical Society, 1994.59.71 As the United States entered the First World War in 1917, the nation placed conservation and rationing policies on items such as food, rubber, and metal.

In effort to conserve metal, manufacturing companies such as the Warner Brothers Corset Company halted the production of corsets, conserving roughly 28,000 tons of metal—about enough to build two battleships. These companies remolded the metal to produce military equipment such as helmets, armor, and wristwatches. More importantly, metal went to the armament industries such as the Remington Arms company in Bridgeport and the Colt Factory in Hartford , to build small arms and munitions for the soldiers fighting overseas. The First World War’s Lasting Impression on Women’s Fashion With the decline of available corsets during the Great War era, the backless brassiere gained popularity. D. H. Warner, President of Warner Brothers Corset Company from 1894 to 1934, began mass producing the backless brassieres, increasing the company’s revenues to $12.6 million by the 1920s. These boosted revenues helped transform the Warner Brothers Corset Company into an enormous corporation.

Postcard of the Warners Brothers Company Factories – Courtesy of Museum of Connecticut History The growth in brassiere sales came at a time when women began to express themselves through the use of more non-restrictive clothing. The emergence of different styles and sizes of bras coincided with a growing women’s movement in the country that witnessed women finding new ways to assert their independence. (The brassieres and other styles of bras such as the bandeaus (strips) also earned acclaim among women due their ability to flatten-down breasts, an important feature of “Roaring Twenties” fashion.) As a result of the Great War, women found new ways to showcase their freedom and individuality, including the manner in which they shaped their bustlines. Cream silk brassiere lined with cotton, ca. 1925 – Courtesy of Connecticut Historical Society, 2012.410.3.2 Cream silk brassiere lined with cotton, ca. 1925 – Courtesy of Connecticut Historical Society, 2012.410.3.2 Christina Nhean wrote this piece while an intern at the Connecticut State Library and student at Central Connecticut State University.

It served as part of the library’s Remembering World War One: Sharing History/Preserving Memories project. LEARN MORE

Question: With which item of clothing do you associate Mary Phelps Jacob
Answer: Bra